How has flying changed your life?

kimberlyanne546 said:
No thanks, not yet. I liked the "small" gathering, got to know each person.
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Re: Oshkosh... That's why you hang out with particular communities there. You couldn't possibly meet 50,000 people.

It's like living in an entire city (because it is... Scholler is 100 blocks deep and has it's own grocery store, fire and police, and that's just regular camping... airplane camping is a bus ride away!) of aviation enthusiasts of all types, where you keep running into your smaller group of friends.

It has to be seen to be believed.

Nothing I ever saw online really gave the right impression (or I would have gone sooner).
 
I wouldn't be me if I didn't fly. My job, my home, my, well everything, is connected to flying.
 
I started training in 1970 but had to wait until 2008 to finish and get my certificate. This past weekend kind of sums it up for me. My wife has been through five back and neck surgeries over an 8 year period and most recently a hip replacement and is now recovered enough to get in the plane again.

Friday night was our monthly EAA Chapter business meeting and program. She's been bugging me to go fly. At dinner I had the iPad out looking at where we could go and hit on Savannah. It's a 5 hour drive and less than 2 hours in the air. Booked a hotel and rental car and we got in the plane Saturday morning. Had a great weekend and flew back late yesterday. That says it all for me!!
 
Stumbled into one of the finest communities of which I have ever been a part. Well worth the extravagant amount of resources I've had to part with on the way.
 
I've been more attentative to my health - don't want to lose my medical.

I'm a part-time musician who plays 3-4 shows per month and usually I'd have a drink or two at the gig. Since I started flying 2 years ago I stopped drinking at gigs. I don't want to get stopped on the way home and accused of DWI; not that ever came close to the legal limit but I still don't want to chance it.

I've taken several friends and family members up since getting my cert. There's nothing like hearing kids say "that was awesome". Hopefully I've inspired some of them to acheive their goals.

Flying keeps my mind busy. All of my past hobbies became boring after a year or two when I felt like I've perfected or learned all there is to know about them. I don't see that happening with aviation.
 
I've also been more attentive to my health to not loose my medical. I also haven't been riding on the street at the same felony fast pace I used to, because I don't want to loose my pilots license.

Flying is one of my first year round hobbies, so pacing myself has been difficult. Ive been learning financial control ( barely), since I get to fly in winter and summer. My other hobbies like motorcycle track were very much save in winter, splurge in summer.

My personality is one that craves the challenge, which flying has plenty of.
 
Skylane81E said:
I wouldn't be me if I didn't fly. My job, my home, my, well everything, is connected to flying.
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I'm more or less in the same position but I think I would still be me, only in different surroundings and circumstances. :idea:
 
EdFred said:
I could be retired already if I didn't start flying.
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Ironically, I would not still be retired if not for flying. I left my last real career job in 2000 and if not for all that I've done with flying I would have never stayed gainfully unemployed all this time. I was done with running on the career treadmill but ultimately still needed a high degree of stimulation and challenge - hence, the aerobatic competition scene.

And that scene has change my life immensely. The people I've met through that endeavor and affiliation have been the most impressive and inclusive bunch I could imagine. I've met astronauts and test pilots, guys that designed their airplanes from scratch, lawn care guys and cardio-thoracic surgeons, career air show pilots and soccer moms, inventors, MIT astrophysics professors, and kids who pumped gas and washed airplanes for money for spin training. What every single one of them had in common was an intense love and passion for flying for the art of it and for that elusive feeling of being "at one" with the air around you while making an airplane do what ever you want.

I'm very proud to be a member of that community and in many ways it's defined me for the last dozen years.
 
One thing about flying is that is a great equalizer. People from all walks of life who are pilots have a common bond no matter how high or low their income is or level of education.

I have met some very interesting people just because I was a pilot.
 
How would one know that flying actually changed their life? If flying did change your life, how would you know if your life was better or worse because of it?

I can look back on my life and the one main thing that I did that probably saved my life was when I joined the Army. Right after I enlisted, my little group of friends I grew up with discovered drugs. This was in 1960, before anyone knew much about such things. None of them lived to see twenty five.

Flying was something I wanted to accomplish while I still could, so I did. Had I known what would be involved, and all the associated costs, I would not have bothered with it. I enjoy flying my little Warrior about, but it is not the huge thrill I thought it would be, but it is still a fun thing to do on my day off.

I can't say it has given me more confidence in myself, I think graduating from jump school and Recondo School did that for me.

I know when they put me in my box I'll have the satisfaction of knowing I'm a pilot. I spent a small fortune on dental implants over the last few years, so now I'll have the best looking teeth in the graveyard.

The things we do, the things we accomplish in our lives, have to be things we do for ourselves before we can honestly say it was well worth it. If we do things to wow others, I'm not so sure,........... or perhaps that is really what everything is all about?

Heck, I'm almost 70, I still don't have it figured out. I have a friend who is 94, he said it's all bullsh*t anyway. That might just be the right answer.

John
 
John Baker said:
Heck, I'm almost 70, I still don't have it figured out. I have a friend who is 94, he said it's all bullsh*t anyway. That might just be the right answer.

John
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For some reason your post reminded me of this :wink2:

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Flying has defined nearly every aspect of my life - I don't expect that to change.
 
Wracking my brain trying to remember that actors name, it finally came to me, Burgess Meredith. He was probably one of the best actors of his time, a very long time.

John
 
I started working around airplanes as an ejection seat parachute rigger in a USMC A6 squardron when I was about 18, 1974. I've been involved with maint and engineering off and on ever since.

More recently, working in a cube cranking out modification packages for large jets got to be a grind. Nothing but deadlines, and people coming to you with problems.

Becoming a pilot really rescued me from job burnout. Now there are a zillion new and exciting aviation topics to explore again.

The medical requirement helps motivate me to stay in shape too.
 
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AdamZ said:
Flying is amazing however I guess the way its changed my life the most is the friends that I met from across the country, most of which are here on POA, that I would have not met if I didn't fly.
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I've probably met at least half my friends through aviation activities, so one might say I'd have half as many friends if it weren't for flying. Then again perhaps I'd have been doing something else that allowed for the making of friends, who knows. I will say that percentage of "good people" I've met through aviation is considerably higher than other avenues IME.

One negative way flying has "changed my life" is the amount of time I seem to spend on aviation forums on occasion exceeds my available spare time.
 
I get to the beach in 1.5 hours versus 8..
 
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